Senators hear testimony on voter identification bill

Process travels quicker in Senatethan in House.

Published 12:00 am, Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Photo: JERRY LARA/glara@express-news.net

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Democratic Sen. Rodney Ellis (right) questions Republican Sen. Robert Duncan on the rushing of SB14. The bill would require voters to present proof of identification. Last week, Gov. Rick Perry declared the passage of the bill an emergency issue.

AUSTIN — While the Texas Senate put voter identification legislation on a fast track Monday, the House overwhelmingly rejected an effort to bypass the normal committee process so a bill could be approved without public testimony.

Keying off Gov. Rick Perry's declaration of the issue as a legislative emergency, the Senate turned itself into a committee of the whole Monday so it could start hearing from the public today and vote on the bill as soon as testimony ends.

Democrats complained they had not had enough advance warning of the meeting to ensure expert witnesses and the public had time to get to Austin to testify.

Over on the House side of the Capitol, the chairman of the Texas Conservative Coalition, Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center, apparently thought the fever to pass the bill would infect the House. Christian offered an amendment to House rules to allow the House to consider the bill directly on the floor as a committee of the whole without taking public testimony.

“Do it now while we have the time,” Christian told the House.

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But Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, who drafted the House rules resolution, told his colleagues that the House only has met as a “committee of the whole” to deal with impeachment proceedings in the 1920s and 1970s, and even those matters first passed through standing House committees.

Christian's effort was doomed when a fellow conservative, Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, questioned the lack of public testimony if the House takes up voter identification without public hearings.

Christian was voted down 130-13. Eighty-eight Republicans and 42 Democrats voted against Christian, while all those voting with him were Republicans.

Democrats thwarted Republican efforts in the past two legislative sessions to pass a bill requiring photographic proof of identity to vote. With Republicans holding a major legislative majority this year, however, the Democrats' only hope is to slow the bill's progress and make a record for a likely legal challenge once it becomes law.

Republicans claim the bill is needed to halt in-person voter fraud, but Democrats say such fraud is rare and the bill would have a greater impact in denying the poor and elderly the right to vote.

The bill that was before the Legislature two years ago would have allowed someone to vote if he had a photo identification or two alternative documents.

This year's Senate Bill 14, however, only allows a person to vote with a Texas driver's license or state identification card, a valid military I.D. or a federal document, such as a passport that proves citizenship and contains a photograph. The bill also includes $2 million for voter education and requires the Texas Department of Public Safety to issue a free photo I.D. card to any citizen who wants it for voting.

Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, chairman of the Senate committee of the whole, said it is important to move forward on the legislation now before lawmakers get bogged down on the state budget and other issues.

“There are members on the floor who have constituents who believe this is an issue of the highest priority – to protect the integrity of the ballot box,” Duncan said.

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, complained that Democratic and minority senators were not given enough advance notice to get witnesses to the Senate chamber by this morning.

“The timeline doesn't offer us the opportunity to get prepared on such a fundamental change in voting rights,” Van de Putte said.

Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, complained that voter identification is a partisan issue that will be voted on by lawmakers wearing “red jerseys and blue jerseys,” an allusion to Republicans and Democrats. Duncan said that may be true in the Legislature, but he said support for passing a voter identification law is bipartisan.

West also questioned whether there actually is any in-person voter fraud in Texas. Most prosecutions for vote fraud in the state involve mail-in ballots in which photo identifications would not be required.

Duncan said there was testimony in 2009 about dead people voting. Most of that testimony involved comparing lists of people who voted with Social Security death records, but often on verification the allegation has been shown to involve people with similar names.